People are voting emotionally.

Better Late Then Never

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Beatles first project after the death of manager Brian Epstein was this half-length psychedelic TV movie which garnered a hostile press reaction when first aired on Boxing Day 1967. Epstein's death apart it should have been a crowning glory to a great year for the group which saw their music hit new heights, but its bittiness and wackiness missed the mark with the mainstream population and as has been said before showed that yes, they could do wrong.Looked at today, one wonders a little what the fuss was about. An eccentric mix of no-doubt drug-induced buffoonery, saucy British sea-side humour and Goons-inspired craziness, it's no masterpiece and probably best viewed as a series of loosely connected sketches in the later style of say, Spike Milligan's Q series or of course Monty Python. Of course it would have helped if said sketches were funny or more tightly edited.The fantasy musical sequences are the best, especially the video clips for McCartney's underrated "The Fool On The Hill" and Lennon's blockbuster "I Am The Walrus", but the white-dress suit finale is terrible, Paul dragging the others into his love affair with vintage Hollywood musicals. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in fact, almost steal the show with their camp Elvis spoof "Death Cab For Cutie"There's not much acting on display and one would doubt there was ever a working script but the colour cinematography is very good, the music obviously is ace and as rock star indulgences go it's not the worst and makes a virtue of its brevity.

i remember the disgust and outrage of British press and critics when this was shown on BBC, sight unseen, Christmas, 1967. Obviously they were expecting something like Hard day's Night or Help, instead of Paul McCartney's foray into surrealist, avant-garde cinema. Although ultimately it doesn't add up to much ultimately, there are nevertheless some inspired sequences that undoubtedly were seen by Mssrs. Cleese, Palin, Jones, Idle, Chapman whose show Monty Python... was still two years in the future.In interviews years later Paul commented that the film had been studied in many prominent film schools.

Context is everything, and I cannot think of a worse way of watching this film than how it was first presented; on Christmas Day evening, with a disapproving dad and bewildered uncles and aunties, on a small black and white telly. While much of Sgt Pepper raised a glass to the older generation, and was both out there and inclusive, Magical Mystery Tour takes the brakes off to deliver a total freak-out, and it really should end up like the finale of The Italian Job, with the coach dangling off a cliff. 'Hang on lads,' Macca might shout. 'I've got an idea!' A recent showing on BBC2 may have helped with the documentary preceding it, with both Ringo and Macca on good form, along with lowered expectations, but I really enjoyed this film. It's not too long - only about an hour - with some fine Beatle songs in it. Much of it isn't really dreamlike, but more an odd nightmare, but it did put me in mind of a David Lynch film, in particular Mulholland Drive. It's true there isn't much 'magic' in it, it seems to seek to alienate, or disturb. I'm thinking of the dream sequence where a grinning Lennon - at his most Michael Caine-like - heaps spaghetti onto a fat woman's plate.I am the Walrus looks rubbish on youtube, but in the context of this film looks quite quirky and polished, the Beatles' animal outfits anticipating the Soft Bulletin and Coldplay. Same with Fool on the Hill, a bit rubbish on youtube but in the film seems to be inspired from the Bergman classic The Seventh Seal.A lot of the humour seems less out there since Python and Vic and Bob came along.I know this isn't meant to be the best Beatle film, but honestly I've had worse times watching the others. I can't always get away from the fact that a lot of A Hard Day's Night is aimed at young teenage girls, or that the fabs are stoned throughout Help!, which has a goofy, lethargic, let's spoof Bond plot. Yellow Sub can be a protracted bore and of course Let it Be is no one's idea of fun. In some ways Magical Mystery Tour is the less dated of the lot, but it's also a bit of a time capsule. I'm glad it exists, and while Paul may have instigated it, it's the last time John Lennon looked truly happy to be a Beatle.

Exceptionally poor TV "special" with the Beatles and a bunch of uninteresting people going on a bus and riding around. This was made in 1967 for British TV. When it premiered the critics gleefully tore it to pieces. The reviews were so negative that in never even played on American TV. In the 80s a revival cinema showed this (along with "A Hard Days Night", "Help", "Yellow Submarine" AND "Let It Be") and I caught it. To be truthful the critics were right. This thing is a pretty terrible vanity project started by Paul McCartney (who did it again in 1984 with "Give My Regards to Broad Street" that also bombed). There's next to no plot. It's just a bunch of people riding around in a psychedelic bus and seemingly filming anything they see. Also the Beatles play multiple characters in dream sequences...or hallucinations...or whatever the hell they are! This would be impossible to sit through if it weren't for the music and the footage of the Beatles interacting. THAT'S the only reason I'm giving this a 7 (I should add I'm a Beatles fan). Without that this is a boring pointless mess.